Pages

Saturday, January 13, 2018

Natural sea glass is beautiful and very unique. Unfortunately, it's not always easy to find (there is a beach in California that is mostly gorgeous sea glass!). I've figured out how to create my own 'faux' sea glass, and with the abundance of colourful glassware out there, the sky's the limit! I've posted a few samples below.

Stayed tuned as I'll be posting instructions on making your own, plus I am now selling Silicon Carbide, used in making 'faux sea glass'. Coming soon!

Fabricated sea glass, drilled by using hollow core bits. Drilling under water prevents the glass (or shells) from cracking.

Another piece of faux sea glass, quite easy to do and I will be posting instructions soon.

My sister-in-law (thanks Dee!) brought me a bag of gorgeous bone and wood beads from the Yukon. As soon as I saw the arrowhead, I knew immediately what to make. These very unique pieces and I am still working on one more antler. I am strongly against the practice of killing animals for adornment. However, the small pieces that I am using here are from animals that were hunted by First Nations who use up every bit possible. They are not hunted merely for sport.

Monday, December 28, 2015

This is a copper frame I created for a Christmas gift, for a
4"x5" photo. I used Baroque Art Gilders Paste (Pinotage) as a coating,
bringing it to nice sheen with an ordinary scrubby . The wax really
brings out the richness in copper and allows it to slowly oxidize to
even richer tones. I used fold forming techniques to texturize the
copper, using an ordinary photo frame.

Friday, November 20, 2015

I just completed an 8" x 10" photo frame that was commissioned. This was quite different from what I usually do, using copper tape instead of hammered sheets. It was a big learning experience for me, as I developed the technique so there was a bit of configuring, trial and error. Overall, I'm quite pleased with the final result and the clear lacquer should keep it from oxidizing.

Thursday, August 20, 2015

We had an old plaster lion's head that hung outside and of course became quite weather worn. I decided to give it a new life and spray painted it with Tremclad metal paint - copper color, two coats. After drying, it was glazed (or antiqued) with a mixture of black and brown Tremclad (liquid not spray), wiping it off quickly to enhance the features. A bit of scuff sanding with 0000 steel wool and sprayed a light layer of Krylon clear coat. Tremclad is an oudoor paint and doesn't require sealing but a light clear coat was applied to tone down the gloss of the copper Tremclad.

Since I was working on this at my patio table in the great outdoors during the time of Cecil's untimely death, I named the final result after that magnificent creature. Live on, Cecil.

Saturday, July 25, 2015

Life has a way of just zipping by, and I really haven't much chance to get into my workshop. Here is a copper pendant I made from a copper disk. This was etched using Ferric Chloride, with the image transferred via the PnP method. This gives a really nice crisp image. It was colored using just a propane flame, quenching, flame, quench, etc. over and over until I was satisfied with the colors. That's how it goes, you never know what color variation to expect! To finish, I used Baroque Gilding Wax, gorgeous stuff to work with.

Saturday, January 3, 2015

You can find materials for jewelry almost anywhere! These are copper washers that I picked up at Harbour Freight in the US, but you can probably find these in many hardware/tool stores. I know some stores are discontinuing them due to copper prices increasing, so grab them while you can.